First of all, my organization is really informal and there are no legal material or formal agreements and no one has money invested in it.
It probably doesn’t qualify as a startup, at least not yet. All 4 founders are full-time students with no idea what we’re doing. We hold an annual show for young artists to show their work, just for fun, and accept donations from the audience. No one is being paid, we all volunteer our time.
A cofounder who left after a mere two months, who contributed the basic goal of the show, much of the idea, the name, and the logo, is demanding money for “the rights” and some control over the show, threatening to sue us if we expand to another city. He remains our classmate and some of us would rather retain our personal links to him.
Is this something he can do? Does he deserve what he demands, and is there anything we can do to get him out of our hair? What kind of structure does our floppy entity need to be sustainable and sound?
Thank you so much to anyone who takes the time to help some very confused kids sort themselves out.